Vortex, 2008

Sculptor Michael Binkley carved this original fine art abstract stone sculpture for his 2008 annual Studio Show exhibition. Binkley sculpted the piece from a variety of limestone quarried in the sate of Indiana, USA. This sedimentary stone has long been used for architectural purposes, but it is also a wonderful medium for sculpture. Limestone is a sedimentary rock being the accumulative buildup of successive ancient seabeds and the Indiana variety shows evidence of tiny shell shards within its even grain. The sculpture of mounted on a rectangular black granite base.

Binkley was inspired to create a symmetrical circular composition by the uniformly square original block of limestone. The artist challenged himself to sculpt a circle in a freehand manner. Binkley intended the sculpture to look like a sphere that had been compressed in from the sides and he gave the surface of this part a silky smooth matte finish. This allows the viewer to be able to appreciate the grain of the limestone and for the stone to successfully hold shadow. He carved the illusion of an outer skin that was cracking and pealing away in three places. These cracks appear as gently serpentine splits that reveal a roughened surface beneath. Binkley then carved negative circular spaces on each side that meet at a circular hole in the centre. These circular spaces have ribbed ridges that spiral inwards towards the hole and give the sculpture its title.

The sculpture caught the attention of the Vandenberg’s at the Studio Show and it is now in their personal collection.